A child patient was sexually assaulted at the state’s premier hospital, SSKM, allegedly by a man who should not even have been allowed inside.
Wednesday’s atrocity has again turned the spotlight on how misgoverned the state’s hospitals are and how criminals have a free run inside them. (See chart below)
Amit Mallick, a contractual employee at the NRS Medical College and Hospital, has been arrested on the charge of molesting the 15-year-old patient, who was visiting SSKM with her parents.
Her parents had gone off to get an outdoor ticket, leaving her alone for a few minutes. When they returned, the girl had disappeared.
“In between, a man wearing a hospital uniform had approached her and persuaded her to accompany him. She was molested inside a common toilet,” an officer at the local Bhowanipore police station said on Thursday.
The girl was found crying on the hospital compound. Her parents reported the alleged assault to a woman doctor, who alerted the principal of the medical college. The complaint was forwarded to the police outpost on the hospital compound.
“The man (Mallick) had earlier been a Group D employee at Shambhunath Pandit Hospital (a satellite of SSKM) and had access to SSKM as well,” the officer said.
Hospital staff were therefore able to identify him easily, based on the description provided by the girl, the officer said.
Mallick, 34, was picked up from his home at the Dhapa Road Bustee in east Calcutta around 9.40 on Wednesday night, the police said. The teenager’s statement has been recorded.
An FIR has been registered against Mallick, charging him under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. He was produced before Alipore court and sent to police custody.
Sources said that Mallick would frequently visit Shambhunath Pandit and SSKM in his old uniform although he was no longer attached to either hospital.
“It’s not clear why he would do so,” the officer said.
“We are investigating whether he has been involved in similar crimes in the past. We will also check whether he is part of a larger racket that fleeces patients and their families, promising admission or access to a bed for money.”
Many had hoped that the state’s hospitals would become safer for women following the flurry of protests and promises after the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August last year.
But the assaults have continued with chilling frequency, their brazenness suggesting the perpetrators have little fear of the law-enforcers.
A doctor was recently assaulted and threatened with rape at the Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Government Medical College and Hospital at Uluberia, Howrah, by a group of men who had arrived with a patient. A police home guard allegedly led the assault.
